Things We Love: Lydia Loveless’ picks

Lydia Loveless’ new album, Somewhere Else, is out this week (Feb. 18, to be exact). You can find it online or at Lost Weekend Records. To build press for the album, which, you know, won’t be hard because it’s freakin’ good, the Columbus resident’s done interviews and been featured in Rolling Stone and Spin, to name a few. She spoke to Alive last week at Surly Girl Saloon about a few of her favorite things, some of which were instrumental (pun intended) in the writing and recording of the album. For a full list of her picks, head to columbusalive.com.

IBM Selectric typewriters

I don't like sitting at the computer and typing because I can get distracted and start tweeting or whatever. My favorite author, Joe Hill, uses this one, so that’s why I got it. It’s really loud and weighs as much as I do, and it makes me feel like a man when I use it. It makes me feel like Hemingway. I try to write every day, mostly poetry and journal stuff. I’m trying to get back into writing fiction again too. I write lyrics on scraps of paper constantly and keep a lot in my head. Right before I record something, I'll wait till the last minute to type out the lyrics, and I’ll do it on the typewriter usually.

Lace

I've been steadily building my wardrobe to be nothing but lace. I just decided to start this project last year, and I noticed it was making me feel feminine and sexy. I have this white lace dress I wear all the time — it's actually my album cover. I think that was the thing that made me decide I only wanted to wear lace. I also have underwear, tights and a lace tanktop that’s cool. Now I just feel like I'm talking about my clothes. Maybe this is getting way too girly, I don’t know. I’m running into risky territory.

“Locke and Key” by Joe Hill

It's about these kids who suffer this horrible tragedy, and they have to move back to Lovecraft, which is this fictional town in Massachusetts. They move into this house and start finding these keys that make magical things happen. There’s a key where you can go through a door and go anywhere as long as you picture where you want to go. It’s cheesy stuff, but I love it. I actually have a tattoo of one of the keys on my arm because I'm a huge dork.

My Rickenbacker hollow-body guitar

I’m terrible at explaining anything about guitars. I just really like it. It’s bright blue, which is my favorite color, and it’s really mellow, which I’m not used to — I usually play a Telecaster. It’s a little bit of a different sound for me, but mostly the reason I love it is, yeah, ’cause I’m a total girl and it’s pretty and blue.

Little Rock Bar

I live right around the corner, which is not really good. But it's awesome to have a neighborhood bar now. I like that it's in the Short North area but it doesn't have that feel. Everything around here is getting a bit suburban, but Little Rock’s on Fourth, not on High, and it has a regular crowd. There's a vibe to it, as opposed to a lot of the time at other bars where people come in from out of town and it kind of loses its personality. I like that there’s music there, but it’s always acoustic, and you can sit and listen to people and hear their lyrics. And it's usually someone I know.

Marc Maron

I feel like I can really relate to him because he's very negative and sarcastic and depressed and neurotic, but he's hilarious, and his podcast is great. Especially his interviews with musicians. He really talks about things you want to hear. So many times people are like, “What are your influences?” But he really takes the time to actually get into people's lives and gets them telling funny stories.